Chapter 8 mountain road

At the end of the eleventh year of the Showa era (that is, 1936), I had a turning point.The owner of the printing office died.After the downfall of the mainstay shopkeeper, the printing house was also in a precarious situation.As the war progressed, paper supplies became tighter, and corporate mergers even involved printing houses.After the shopkeeper died, only the eldest son who had been called to serve as a soldier and the second son who was a junior high school student remained in his family. I consider taking this opportunity to resign as a craftsman.Fortunately, my work can also be done at home.In other words, if the various print shops come to order original copies, I can operate independently.But having said that, there are also difficulties in running an independent business.In this narrow street, there are not many print shops that can order in this way.Moreover, there are so many so-called original print shops that there is almost no room for me to enter.

I am hesitant. If others don't come to order, there will be no income.Perhaps it was also because the work in the printing shop was not so busy, so I went home early and slowly prepared to draw original prints from outside, which can be regarded as a side job.In this way, if the prospects are promising, I am ready to resign my job in the printing shop. The reason why I am so cautious is because I am worried about the life of my family.At that time, I was married, my parents were old and weak, and I couldn't continue to be a fishmonger. One day, I was reading the "Asahi Shimbun" and saw such a news in the newspaper: "Asahi Shimbun" will establish a western branch in Kokura on February 1st in the 12th year of the Showa era (that is, 1937), and will issue newspapers there .I thought, since we want to publish newspapers in Xiaocang, we must collect news advertisements locally.Advertising naturally requires graphic design.It would be an opportunity for me to hire people who draw original prints locally.

However, the brand of "Asahi Shimbun" is really too big. I don't know if it will hire someone like me. First of all, there is no recruitment notice on it. I don't know who to ask for, and there is no such way.However, I am not discouraged. I wrote a letter directly to Mrs. H, the branch president who was published in the newspaper.For me, there is no other way but to do this. Four or five days later, an envelope with the words "Asahi Shimbun" printed on it arrived.While I speculated that it was probably because I was rejected, I opened the envelope and saw that it was written in typeface: Regarding the matters mentioned in the letter, please go to Mr. K, the advertising department of the sales department of the company, for an interview.And postscript: If you have any works, please show them.I am very pleased with this unexpected reply.

But I'm still a little uneasy.Is it possible to be hired, and can the way you bring it satisfy the other party?Until the day I went, I drew several new advertisement patterns, put on the only suit, and went to visit the newspaper office in Shajin, east of Ogura. It was the new company site that had just been completed. The round building was connected to the square factory behind it. The building was milky white and very beautiful.I flinched and pushed open the door. The building was mostly glass.Once inside, it's as bright as it is outside.I explained my purpose to the doorman, and he pushed open the glass door and led me into the sales department.Opposite the counter, there are three rows of tables inside.Among them, in the middle of the middle row, I was interviewed by a man in his thirties with a neat parted hair. He was Mr. K, the director of the advertising department.

K read my resume.I was half-deflated when he stared at my poor education and career history. Mrs. K took the original manuscript and printed matter of my crappy original pattern, and went to discuss with the boss inside.The two of them discussed quietly there.I concealed my uneasiness and looked around. There was only one young employee in the advertising department, and there were only two desks.The boss who is talking to Mrs. K now is Mrs. Y. Later I found out that he is the deputy head of the sales department.Connected to the advertising unit is the desk of the accounting unit.There is only a plump, red-faced director and a small clerk.There are few people.

No matter which one you observe, each of them is wearing a fine suit.Nobody was wearing faded suits like mine that were made years ago.In the splendor of the new building, I am small.It's a completely different world from the dirty print shop's workshop. Mrs. K finally came back, and he told me: "Then, from tomorrow, come!" Because it was so easy, I was a little confused for a moment. After listening to the voice slowly, I realized that I did not join the company, but belonged to the newspaper company. I signed a contract with the newspaper company and paid for each print according to the number of original prints.That is to say, what I did in the past—painting original prints brought in from ordinary print shops and receiving painting fees, which is not the same as in the past.

My concern is how many customers the newspaper will have after it is published.Knowing nothing, I thought newspaper advertisements were made by newspaper offices.According to Mr. K, most of the advertisements are paper models transferred from the Osaka head office, so you only need to draw local advertisements and let me do it.However, with these few things, can I guarantee my life?I asked with trepidation, and they asked me: "How much do you earn in the current printing office?" I replied, "Generally, it is a daily salary, and the monthly income is about forty or fifty yuan." Mrs. K said: "Take this Some income is not a problem."

There is still a month to go until the newspaper's publication date on February 11th.I am submitting my resignation to the print shop I have worked for for many years.The widow of the deceased shopkeeper was about forty years old. Perhaps because the shopkeeper was very capable, she was slow by nature. She always sat in the counting room with a bun.The merger of the printing house was going on, and at that time she was considering whether to decide to close the business or merge it, so she readily agreed to my resignation request.I asked her to say: "In the future, I will open my own original print shop, and orders are welcome."

At that time, the rented house of my family consisted of only two six-story rooms, and the parents lived in it. I set up a table by the glass window in this room by the alley, and began to draw the original prints ordered by various printing houses.Although there is work to do now, I am still worried that there will be no work to do in the future.I work from morning till eleven o'clock at night.At that time, I was twenty-eight years old. Newspaper jobs gradually increased.This is different from the original lithograph, which is drawn on dual-purpose paper with ink, and white correction fluid can be used for damaged drawings.This is much more labor-saving than the original lithograph.

Because the advertiser is local, there are no large-scale advertisements.Most of them are tofu cubes (two columns about five centimeters high), and occasionally they are advertised in department stores and movie theaters in some places.However, most of the blank space in the advertisement is filled with type, and there is not much letterpress, so I have an easy job. As Mr. K. said, at the end of the month, the salary I asked for was more than what I earned at the printing office.And, fortunately, Mr. K also changed the amount that was not proposed out of politeness and increased my salary appropriately.I remember that there are about two columns of original prints, which cost about two yuan and fifty cents.In fact, it was just making a brief headline, so I felt unbearable to take the money at the beginning.

However, Mr. K presumably came from Osaka, so he probably paid me the same price as that in Osaka.Besides, as far as the newspaper is concerned, if there are two full columns of advertisements, it will get quite a lot of income. The so-called pattern fee is nothing special. At that time, there were no advertising contractors or exclusive stores, and almost all of them were run concurrently by newspaper sellers.In order to teach the existing sales outlets to carry out the news advertisement introduction business, the agency also specially hired some field workers.At that time, the so-called Kitakyushu included Kokura, Moji, Shimonoseki, Hachiman, Hudian, Wakamatsu, and West Japan including Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Nagasaki.The shopkeepers who sold the shop did not know the essentials of soliciting advertisements, and Mr. K worked very hard as a pioneer. However, soon the sales outlets also understood the point, and realized that the handling fee for advertising was much more favorable than selling newspapers, and they began to work on it in earnest.Later, the newspaper sales shop closed down one after another and turned into an advertising contractor shop. My life is: go to the newspaper office around 11:00 in the morning, ask for an empty table, spread out two sides of the paper, take out tools such as bird beak pens and advertisement painting colors from my schoolbag, and trace the original manuscripts brought by others.At about two o'clock in the afternoon, I went home after work, and went to draw the original layout of the printing house that I transferred when I was not at home.At that time my income accounted for two-thirds of the newspaper office, and the work of the printing office in the city accounted for the remaining one-third. I finally realized my wish to say goodbye to the life of a printing craftsman, but I was still haunted by anxiety.This worry is caused by the uncertainty of income.As for the newspaper office, it also began to try to strengthen the sales department at that time, and the advertising department was upgraded to a department.It is rumored that a large number of staff will be transferred from Osaka.At that time, if a pattern designer came from Osaka, my job would be over.Because almost all income depends on the newspaper, this also makes me very worried. The original layout of the newspaper is almost all urgent work.The work of the printing office is also urgent, but it is not as good as that of the newspaper office.As long as you do the work of the newspaper, you will be tied to the newspaper no matter what.As a result, jobs in the city gradually declined.This situation aroused my uneasiness again. Once, the director of the sales department reprimanded me loudly for arriving after twelve o'clock.He said that every hour in the newspaper office is precious. Since you are doing the work here, you must eliminate everything, do not waste time, and take responsibility.This is true, but I work until one o’clock in the night every day, and get up at seven o’clock the next morning. At least I can clean up the original printing work in the printing shop, and then go to work. I have tried my best to arrive at twelve o’clock. . If a pattern designer comes from the head office, I lose my job in the newspaper office, and I must pay attention to the orders in the city.In this state, I no longer know which side is the main one.Therefore, I asked Mr. K, and he said: Recently, a large number of people are coming to Osaka, but there are no pattern designers, so you can do as you do now.I see.I made up my mind to give up my job in the city. There are more and more advertisements in the local editions of newspapers.At that time, the Sino-Japanese war was developing, and the country was instigated by the war situation.I don't know how many times I have painted the headlines of "I wish the imperial army entered Beijing" and "I wish the imperial army a great victory". In May of the thirteenth year of Showa (1938), many new people arrived from the Osaka headquarters, including the branch president, two deputy chiefs, a field director, a board director, and several people from the school and column department.I also got a desk and went to and from get off work every day like a member of the Asahi Shimbun.The number of advertisements has naturally increased. At that time, when Shanghai fell, the Japanese army occupied Nanjing and established the Jidong regime.Victory news came one after another.Whenever this kind of news comes out, even localities publish a page of advertisements.It's called syndicated advertising, and it's been a pretty big source of income for me. On the technical side, I have finally adapted to news advertising.Prior to this, K had asked me to use a spray brush on the head art.I went to Fukuoka and bought a manual spray paint brush. Using this machine, I can control the shade of the color very well.The machine was already in heavy use at the time, and I was quite flustered at first because I was not used to it.Technically, stick thin paper on dual-purpose paper with seaweed, use a photo correction pen to cut the thin paper part according to the pattern, and use the brush on the sprayer to paint on it.This seaweed can't be too strong, and it can't be too weak. I can't do whatever I want for a long time. I did this job for about three years.During this time my eldest daughter was born. The organization of the newspaper office is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of people has also increased.In one stroke, I made an entrustment (that is, a special staff) in the fourteenth year of the Showa era (that is, 1939), and became a full-fledged member in the seventeenth year of the Showa era (that is, 1942). At that time, the membership status of the newspaper agency was divided into three levels: member, reserve member, and employee.Those who have graduated from university and passed the entrance examination are probationary members, also called trainees, and become regular members after one year.Probationary members are graduates of higher education institutions (old system) or specialized schools, and they enter through the same entrance examination.All graduates from middle school (old system) are employees.Employees can also be promoted to associate members and members over time.Therefore, trainees are initially educated in the style of cadre candidates. My identity - fixed entrustment, divided into reserve member treatment and member treatment, I am a member treatment, and I only obtained the qualifications of a member when I formally joined the club after I was released from the testament. However, the "Asahi Shimbun" at that time implemented a hierarchical system, and the treatment was different according to the rank.For example, payday is the 25th for members and associate members and the 26th for employees.During the gatherings of newspapers, newspapers, or newspapers, only members and reserve members are called to the auditorium, and employees are not eligible to participate.I don't know how much inferiority complex this evokes in employees.

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